


Challenge Accepted

by Tht0neGal666



Series: Timothy Drake-Luthor [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DC Animated Universe (Timmverse), Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Abandonment Issues, And a little bit of, Angst, Belle Reeve, Fluff and Humor, Found Family, Gen, Guilt, Internal Conflict, Poor Social Skills, Protective Siblings, Team as Family, chaotic siblings, goddamn Atremis just. Can't get a break., tim drake is raised by Lex Luthor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24335338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tht0neGal666/pseuds/Tht0neGal666
Summary: She made her way to the living room, nodding in greeting to the boys and taking a step toward her spot on the couch, idly tuning into what Cat Grant was reporting on today.And she froze in place, feeling the color drain from her face as she saw what the headline read on the screen.'The Ravenger: Villain Apprehended!'
Relationships: Artemis Crock & Dick Grayson & Kaldur'ahm & Kon-El | Conner Kent & M'gann M'orzz & Wally West, Artemis Crock & Rose Wilson, Artemis Crock & Tim Drake, Artemis Crock & Tim Drake & Rose Wilson, Tim Drake & Rose Wilson
Series: Timothy Drake-Luthor [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1054835
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	Challenge Accepted

Sometimes, when not a lot is going on mission wise, The Team just hangs out together in Mount Justice. Artemis loved it. the thought of casual and spontaneous companionship excited her. The idea that if she was feeling lonely (or sad or angry or scared), she could just zeta to Mount Justice and there'd always, without fail, be someone there to distract her.

That isn't to say that she didn't Love Rose and Tim. She did. Unconditionally. With all of her heart. She would do anything for them, they would do anything for her. It was just how they worked, to the point where even all of their shared metric tons of paranoia never touched their bond. They could doubt themselves, they could doubt the world, they could doubt everything they'd ever been taught, but they couldn't doubt each other.

(Artemis knew, in that spot in the back of her brain that she didn't look to far into, that she'd betray The Team if Tim or Rose asked. She'd feel horrible about it, and be furious that they asked it of her, but there was no doubt that she would do it. The thought almost scared her.)

But, the fact stood, that Rose and Tim were both Very Busy. All the time. Honestly, it was a considerable miracle that they had been able to block out two entire days a month to spend as a group. Sure, Tim texted non-stop and didn't care that she was With The Team, and if she ever called Rose would undoubtedly pick up, even if she's mid-swing in a fight. But that wasn't quite the same. 

Sometimes she needed to just…spend time with people. Just because. Without the added stress of knowing they only had a minute amount of time to hang out. Now, she could just pop into the cave without a underlying fear of judgmental and overbearing billionaires or random corpses and gore (really, she loved them, but Could They Not).

So it was better.

So, of course, she spent A Lot Of Time in Mount Justice. Her mom was fine with it. Thought that The Team would be a very welcome and positive influence. And also that Artemis needed friends. After school, she often found herself at Mount Justice, just chilling. Snarking at Robin and Wally. Chittering happily with M'gaan and ignoring the slight ache that came at how Sisterly they were. Irritating Conner and Kaldur. Gossiping about Red Tornado.

It was almost routine by now. Leave school, Text Tim for a bit, Zeta to Mount Justice. Help M'gann cook or- if she's there a bit too late- try M'gann's cooking. It was always burnt and never tasted quite right, but Artemis could eat it anyways. She grew up semi-poor in Gotham, there wasn't much she couldn't eat. 

Then they go to the living room and just hang out with whoever else is there. Recently added to this routine was watching the news, after Robin had apparently bugged The Batman into fixing the reception so it was more then static. Superboy would grumble about it a bit, but wouldn't object as the channel was changed from Static to the National News. Then, if anything of note happened, they'd switch their conversation to the TV for a bit. It was simple. 

Nice, even.

Today was like any other day, in that regard. Artemis was a little on edge. She had texted Tim when she got out of school, but his texts back seemed…distracted. Half assed. Which would be all good, if Tim was talking to almost anyone else, but he was never distracted when he was talking to Artemis. Not unless he was plotting something with Rose or having an 'encounter' with his mother. Neither of those were good signs, but he seemed fine enough, so she left it lie. She was already at Mount Justice anyway. she turned off her LexCorp phone and went to the kitchen. Like any other day.

M'gann had already made cookies, and Wally was in the kitchen flirting with the martian and eating the very clearly burnt cookies. Robin was in the living room that the kitchen opened into, trading fun facts about birds for fun facts about fish with Kaldur. There was a distinctly competitive tone from the younger boy. Conner was just sitting, as usual, watching the news instead of the usual static.

The martian smiled and waved at her as she entered the kitchen, relief flashing briefly in her eyes. probably grateful to be free of KF's relentless flirting. He was sweet, but he was also a bit too much sometimes. Artemis waved back and Wally lit up, tossing her a few cookies and singing praise on them. She rolled her eyes and caught them, eating the cookies and complimenting M'gann on the improvement. Still not Edible by most people standards, but they were getting better. She made her way to the living room, nodding in greeting to the boys and taking a step toward her spot on the couch, idly tuning into what Cat Grant was reporting on today.

And she froze in place, feeling the color drain from her face as she saw what the headline read on the screen.

'The Ravenger: Villain Apprehended!' it claimed proudly, Cat smiling in relief at the 'threat being locked up', and it takes everything Artemis have to not just start yelling. Or maybe shoot the TV. Her hands curled up into white fists as she took deep breathes, trying to calm down. Her team was bound to notice her reaction sooner or later, and she wasn't convinced they really trusted her yet. Freaking out over some Merc (Her Best Friend, Half Of Her Entire World-) getting arrested would just be suspicious. Deep breathes, Artemis.

"The Ravenger, Identity not publicly known, is an infamous mercenary. Her kills are rumored to number somewhere in the hundreds, despite her apparent age. She has been at large for years, but, until today, there had been very little information on her, even her gender and overall appearance being subject to speculation. However, at around 8:45 PM last night, Police officials in Baton Rouge Louisiana apprehended her. Currently, she is being held in a holding cell. After she plead guilty to everything she was pressed with, the commissioner insisted that she needed to, quote, 'Get the hell out of my city and onto the next truck to Belle Reeve.' Other officials seem to agree with him, and she is to be moved first thing in the morning." Cat reported, and it was the only thing Artemis could hear despite the other four people in Mount Justice. Fuck.

Fuck, she thought again with feeling, gritting and grinding her teeth. What the hell was Rose's play? She wouldn't just 'get caught' by some simple Louisiana police guys. Even if she was, why hadn't Tim broken her out yet? It had been, apparently, hours. Something wasn't right here. Why would Rose possibly _want_ to go to Belle Reeve? Even Wilson himself hadn't been sent there.

Artemis closed her eyes, took a few deep breathes, forced herself to relax as much as she was able, and tuned back into the rest of her surroundings. Cat had moved on to the next topic, and the news faded into white noise again.

"Artemis!" Someone hissed, and she couldn't place who it was for the life of her. Her gaze snapped up to The Team, only to find them suddenly looking very alert and worried. She felt M'gann prod lightly at her mind and sent a glare that was, probably, a bit uncalled for, and the presence at the edge of her consciousness recoiled like it had been burned. Robin was tense like a rubber band, ready to leap into action as soon as he needed to. Wally was looking around frantically. Kaldur just frowned in confusion and concern at her. Conner didn't seem to know exactly what to do, but had his head tilted just so, the way he did when tapping into his super hearing.

"I'm- I'm fine." She croaked, clearing her throat and shaking her head before trying again. "I'm Fine." She restated more firmly, eyes a silent challenge to call her bluff. "Just- I gotta go. Do something." She coughed, wincing internally at her very weak excuse. Tim would be ashamed.

Tim. That _asshole_. He had to be in on this. He'd better be in on this, because she needed Answers, needed them Now. If she didn't get said answers, she may end up doing something that her new team would disapprove of. Like break a convicted super-villain out of Belle Fucking Reve.

Whatever, burn that bridge when she gets there. Right now, she had to get out of Mount Justice. There wasn't a single question that her friends could ask her that had a good and truthful answer.

"I'll see you guys later." She sighed, giving an apologetic (placating) smile and wave before walking through the Zeta, before anyone had much a chance to react.

She arrived in Gotham and Ran, cautious of being followed by concerned team-mates. She bolted, heading straight for Tim's nearest known safe-house. Tim somehow seemed to know exactly where to go so the bats wouldn't monitor or find or follow you. This one was a penthouse on the third to top floor of a semi-abandoned hotel. The safe-house itself, however, was the abnormally large broom closet at the end of the hall. The penthouse itself was just a place to enter so, if someone happened to see you, they'll think they know where you are. Don't get her confused, it was still a small broom closet, but you could fit a computer desk and two chairs comfortably in there, and Tim was very efficient with space.

She takes a few more breathes, goes still to make sure she wasn't followed, and pulls out her LexCorp phone, turning it back on. Now that she had a bit of distance, she was given ample time to get herself angry. What The Hell did they think they're doing? Why didn't they talk to her about it first? What Was This? She punched Tim's number into her phone and called, growls only barely repressed as the phone rang.

"Drake speaking." Tim answered idly, the phone rustling around a bit and voice heavy with excitement and sleep depreciation and laced with worry, not even bothering to try being masked by professionalism, which Artemis found particularly relieving. She's not quite sure what she would do if he suddenly froze her out in an effort to keep her out of the know or something.

"Drake." Artemis started, opening her mouth to continue before closing it with an audible click. She wasn't sure exactly how to phrase her demand for answers.

"Crock." He responded cheekily, clearing his throat to get rid of some of the sleep. She rolled her eyes and bit the inside of her cheek.

"Drake," She growled this time, letting her anger flow to get her through the conversation, "Why is Wilson on her way to Belle Reve?" She demanded, fingers tapping on the desk set up in the closet.

"Because she got caught by our hard working boys in blue. Happens to the best of us." Tim chirped carelessly.

"No, it Doesn't." She corrected, "And if it does, it doesn't stick for enough hours to get an actual sentence. Especially not when You of all people are her partner. Rich son of a bitch." She grumbled a bit.

"Oh I'm no son of a bitch, Arty, I'm the heir to a bastard." Tim reminded her on instinct, primal fear of letting his mother's name go tarnished carved into him since he could talk, "And anyways, I'm not sure you want to know. Plausible deniability is your friend."

"The heart attack of Wilson being incarcerated isn't feeling particularly friendly at the moment, actually." She hissed in return, absolutely not in the mood for Timothy's Shit. 

"Oh. shit." Tim intoned, a little guilty, and that made her feel at least a little better. Little Fucker has the emotional intelligence of rotting carrot. The other side of the phone was silent for a handful of stressful minutes, and she could almost see him reevaluating the situation given her reaction.

"Drake." she growled again, after giving him a very generous amount of time to collect himself and sort out his plan, and she was rewarded with a sigh.

"Ok, right, shit, sorry. I may have gotten a bit caught up in my own magnificent genius, nothing new there," She gave another warning growl that he talked right over, the brat, "But don't worry about it. Wilson just got bored and heard your friends had a mission planned in Belle, so she rang me up and decided that right now was the best time for her to be the first person to escape. I, of course, already have a folder full of plans for each of us to escape Belle Reve should it ever come to that, because of course it's going to come to that, so she'll be just fine." He assured. He sounded a little too excited for her liking, but whatever. She gave a long suffering sigh and stared at the broom-closet door like it could tell her why she put up with this little shit.

"I hate you." She started as her heart rate finally slowed a bit, cause she wanted to make that clear. "She'll be out by the 19th?" She inquired, though she didn't even know quite why she bothered. 

"Yeah, totally. Worst comes to worst, we can visit her. I would kill for a picture of her in that much orange. For Blackmail Reasons." He contemplated shamelessly, and Artemis groaned again, distantly wondered why this was her life.

"Awesome. Can't wait. I'm gonna kick your ass come the 19th, you little fuck." She promised with a nod, and she didn't think she'd ever been more sure of anything in her life. She was going to continue the threat, but Tim made a distressed whine on the other end of the line

"Aw fuck, I have to take this. Alexander probably needs help resetting the WiFi or something." he claimed, only probably joking.

"Well. Good luck with that then, I guess. And everything else." She sighed, fight bleeding out of her to give way to just a bone-deep tiredness. Tim made a dismissive hum and hung up, because he only had manners when he wanted something or was being watched.

"Brat." She intoned to the empty air, because it really had to be said.


End file.
